Patriots blast Bruins

Fort Dorchester rolled off more than 400 yards of offense Friday while keeping the No. 5 team in the state out of the end zone for nearly the entire game.

The Patriots earned a 34-10 victory over South Florence, which was ranked fifth in the S.C. Prep Media Class AAAA Football Poll, in the season opener for both teams.

“We have room for improvement, but for it to be our first game and Week 0 I think we did pretty good,” Fort Dorchester coach Steve LaPrad said. “I’m proud of our kids and our staff, which did a good job preparing our athletes. We had a good game plan on offense, defense and special teams and we only turned the ball over once.”

Most of the Patriots’ yards came on the ground. Junior running back Datron James rushed for approximately 220 yards and a touchdown. Senior quarterback Kobe Garrett rushed for nearly 100 yards and two scores.

“Our offensive line did a great job,” LaPrad said. “We heard before the game they were going to try to pound at us with their running game and keep our defense on the field. We kind of flipped the script on them. I think our summer conditioning paid off for both our offense and defense.”

The Bruins returned several starters to an offense that averaged more than 40 points per game last season but the Patriots didn’t surrender a touchdown Friday until the final 20 seconds of the game.

The first quarter was slow moving but the Patriots got on the board with a 23-yard field goal from Riley Rozanski.

The Fort scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter.

Garrett capped one drive with a 1-yard touchdown run and broke free for a 75-yard run into the end zone to cap another. Rozanski added a 20-yard field goal for a 20-0 Fort lead at the half.

South Florence got on the board with a 33-yard field goal in the third, but the Patriots answered with two scoring drives. James capped the first with a 5-yard TD run and sophomore running back Savien Wittrell capped the second with an 8-yard TD run for a 34-3 Fort Dorchester lead.

South Florence scored its only TD of the evening in the closing minute on a 25-yard pass.

Fort Dorchester 3 17 0 14 — 34

S. Florence 0 0 3 7 — 10

FD - Rozanski 23 FG

FD - Garrett 1 run (Rozanski kick)

FD - Garrett 75 run (Rozanski kick)

FD - Rozanski 20 FG

SF - Rabon 33 FG

FD - James 5 run (Rozanski kick)

FD - Wittrell 8 run (Granger kick)

SF - Vereen 25 pass from Jones (Rabon kick)

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